Over the last year, retailers lost over $94.5 billion due to retail shrink.
Retailers across the country are struggling to find a middle ground between preventing theft and improving the in-store experience.
This week we discuss what retailers are doing to combat retail theft and take a look at how computer vision is changing retail.
THIS WEEK’S HIGHLIGHTS
- Computer vision in retail: How stores are utilizing the overload of data.
Retail Theft: Retailers resort to a heavy-handed approach to retail theft.
- Holiday Shipping: USPS is better equipped for 2022 holidays after past peak struggles.
FOOT TRAFFIC INDEX
Here’s a look at last week’s foot traffic compared to the same time last year.
FOOT TRAFFIC TRENDS
Industry insights so you can convert your foot traffic into more sales.
Black Friday Predictions
Over the last year, retailers lost over $94.5 billion last year due to retail shrink.
Retailers across the country are struggling to find a middle ground between preventing theft and improving the in-store experience.
Measures to stop theft, such as locking products up or adding alarms, have introduced friction into the buying journey as customers have to wait for staff to unlock cabinets or retrieve items from storerooms.
Then on the flip side, attempts to simplify the shopping experience may actually facilitate theft.
Despite the friction it may cause, More retailers have turned to locking items up or shifting inventory to stockrooms to keep shoplifters from snatching items off shelves.
Computer vision meets retail
Retailers who successfully leverage computer vision with diagnostic, proactive, and predictive analytics are gaining the much-needed competitive edge.
Computer vision provides video and audio for additional context, complementing other types of data. No matter if you are at your store for 9 hours a day, or an hour a week, it is impossible to see everything the way artificial intelligence can comprehend every second of the day.
The combination of foot traffic data and AI allows you to not only see exactly how long a customer was in a store, but you can see exactly where customers are spending their time.
Retail Snippets
Holiday Shipping: USPS is better equipped for 2022 holidays after past peak struggles.
Report: DroneUp has partnered with Walmart to make home deliveries even faster.
Holiday hiring: Google enhances AR search tools to help harried holiday shoppers.
RANDOM IRRELEVANCE
Black Friday: Where shoppers may see the biggest discounts on Black Friday—and where they won’t.
Amazon: Amazon Alexa is a “colossal failure,” on pace to lose $10 billion this year.
Box office: ‘Avatar: The Way Of Water’ projected to open to $150M-$175M+ at U.S. box office.